Back through the border landed us in Hiawatha National Forest at Monocle Lake CG, Brimley, MI for a night then on to Pictured Rock National Lakeshore recommended by Tom. The park runs for miles along Lake Superior with sandstone cliffs, perched dunes, lakes and forests with at least 5 different kinds of pines and birch. Nice campsites backed up to 12 Mile Beach on Lake Superior. Although worthy of much more time, we all felt the urge for going after a stop at Miner’s Castle to see the sandstone cliffs.
Settling in on Rte 28 to make some distance, we stopped in a church parking lot for lunch and then time and distance came to a halt. Harry noticed Speedy’s right rear was quite low and still losing air. With a slow response from AAA, the guys decided to get started which proved to be a good exercise in learning how things worked or not. This story has many chapters that are still unfolding and detailed in Steve’s blog so I won’t repeat except to comment on the super nice guys who came by in a golf cart from a nearby campground and stopped to help. Turns out they are local power line men who had traveled to MA in Hurricane Irene when we had so much damage to the power lines. My cousin’s husband is a line man and travels the distance to help in disasters so these guys are true heroes. We got campsites at nearby Van Riper State Park in Champion, MI while Speedy doubled back about 40 miles for a new tire and joined us later.
S & E have targeted Minot, MN for repairs that have now increased x 3 adding in brakes and a macerator pump. After trying and failing to find space in 5 different campgrounds on busy Memorial Day Weekend, we are chancing a night at the Cass Lake Rest Area. Although the sign says no camping, there is a 10 hour limit which should do it. We are right by a lake with well manicured grounds and lots of birds including 2 common nighthawks that just flew over. One more for my life list along with pine siskins seen earlier in the day.
The current plan is to follow Speed to Minot and then we will head to Theodore Roosevelt NP for several days while S & E get the needed repairs.
